“The country is going through a very sad moment”

Glasgow 2024 ambassador David Rudisha urges Kenyan world indoors team to help lift the nation following the deaths of Kevin Kiptum and Henry Rono

David Rudisha has urged the Kenya team bound for next month’s World Indoor Championships to help lift a nation which is in mourning following the death of two of its major athletics figures in recent days.

First came the shock news earlier this week surrounding marathon world record-holder Kelvin Kiptum, who died along with his coach in a car accident. Then, not long after Rudisha had spoken to the media on Thursday morning (Feb 15) to announce his appointment as an official ambassador for Glasgow 2024, it was announced that Henry Rono, who set world records in the 3000m, 3000m steeplechase, 5000m and 10,000m had passed away at the age of 72.

Rudisha, a two-time Olympic champion and still the men’s 800m world record-holder, admits the news of Kiptum’s passing hit incredibly hard. Indeed, the All African Games national trials were postponed in honour of the 24-year-old whom many expected to surpass the feats of marathon great Eliud Kipchoge.

Rono, meanwhile, is probably best known for his record-breaking spree of 1978. In a span of just 81 days, he set those marks for 3000m, the 3000m steeplechase, 5000m and 10,000m.

Now, with the first global championships of Olympic year on the horizon, Rudisha believes his country’s line-up – spearheaded by the likes of Africa’s fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala in the men’s 60m and women’s 3000m steeplechase world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech in the 3000m – can start the work of recovering from the losses.

“The country is going through a very sad moment. We lost one of our great athletes in Kelvin Kiptum, who was very promising,” said Rudisha. “It’s very tragic. We are still in shock but we encourage our athletes to keep on doing what they’ve been doing and training hard, because this is also a very important year for our country.

Kelvin Kiptum (Getty)

“It is sad that these things have happened but at the same time you don’t know what life brings sometimes and yes we just have to accept and move forward.”

He added: “Kelvin was an upcoming athlete. He was one of the best, running very fast times and within no time breaking the world record. We were expecting him even to do more. To have Eliud as one of the greatest marathon runners showing the road to these young athletes following behind it’s really an incredible honour. But to lose such a young, talented athlete is a huge loss for our country and of course for his young family.

“He sacrificed a lot in his life and he was ready to reap what he had been doing but it has been cut short.”

Henry Rono (Mark Shearman)

A smile returned to Rudisha’s face, however, when he began to discuss the upcoming championships in Glasgow – a city he is looking forward to visiting again in the coming weeks and views with great affection. The two-time world champion was not an athlete accustomed to coming second during his career, but the only time he did on a major stage arrived in Scotland’s largest city – at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

“Even though I was coming from an injury year in 2013 when I had keyhole surgery, that really motivated me because it was one of the competitions where I saw that: ‘Yes, I can make it back,’” said the man who so famously strode to Olympic gold in record-breaking time in 2012. “I was expecting to win, but I came second. Me and my coach Brother Colm O’Connell joked about it – he tells me that the Glasgow one is very special because it’s silver.

“I like the tradition of the Scottish people, with the men wearing the kilt. It reminds me of my strong background where I come from. I’m a Maasai, from the Maasai community in Kenya where we still have a strong culture. This competition is very important and is going to make a very significant mark on our athletes.”

“The country is going through a very sad moment” appeared first on AW.